In general, a conventional or well-known sanitary washing toilet seat device includes a case fixed to a rear top side of a toilet bowl and extending in width direction of the toilet bowl. The case accommodates therein a solenoid valve, a warm water tank for therein reserving an amount of warm water heated up to a set temperature by a heater, and a pair of nozzles. When the solenoid valve is opened, water under pressure is supplied into the warm water tank by way of the resulting solenoid valve, the warm water in the warm water tank is pressurized, pushed out, and supplied to one of the nozzles or a selected nozzle. The resulting warm water under pressure causes the selected nozzle to extend into an inner space of the toilet bowl and ceases at a set position to be spouted from the extended nozzle.
In the above-described conventional or well-known sanitary washing toilet seat device as described in, say, Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. Hei.10-23995 which was published without examination in 1998, a space or gap is inevitably or unavoidably defined between an outer surface of the rear top side of the toilet bowl and a bottom surface of the case. Therefore, sometimes urine and/or dust may enter such a space. In order to keep the toilet bowl clean at all times, such urine and dust should be wiped after establishment of opened condition of the top side of the toilet bowl. For bringing the top side of the toilet bowl into the opened condition, the case is connected, by a hinge mechanism, to the toilet bowl to rotate or tilt relative to the toilet bowl.
However, in the conventional sanitary washing toilet seat device the case is connected to the toilet bowl by the hinge mechanism to rotate or tilt relative to the toilet bowl, and a considerable weight or force can be exerted from the case on the hinge mechanism. Therefore, if a hinge pin or pivot pin, which constitutes one of the important components of the hinge mechanism, is made of resin, the hinge pin can be subject to breakage.
In addition, the case generally accommodates a warm water tank, such that whenever the case is tilted through an angle relative to the toilet the hot water tank is inclined to the same extent, which causes a fear of water leakage from the warm water tank. In order to prevent such leakage, it is necessary to drain the warm water from the warm water tank before the case is tilted.
A need thus exists for providing an improved sanitary washing toilet seat which is free from the above-described drawbacks.